This guy is so genuine to me. Might not have tons of humor, but his persona is rife with honesty and genuine sincerity. Do you want a yes man, or someone with an original and autonomous individual.

Travis Stevens is a no BS kind of judo player. Very honest with himself as a person and as a Judoka. Thank you FloGrappling for the story. As a older Judoka I understand his perspective and appreciate his insight.

Most feared fighter I knew in the Army was a 5th group guy from Chicago who was a folk wrestling champion, wrestled competitively for the Army, and was a shodan in Kodokan Judo. No other martial artist, competitive fighter, in the Army wanted to try him twice. And he wasn't a big guy. Wrestling + Judo = Beast. Wrestling & Judo body slams break bones. Judo joint locks break bones. Judo strangles & chokes are potentially lethal.

That was a very good interview; methodical, detailed - many thanks. Travis seems like a great, hard working guy.

Fantastic interview. So deep.

Great interview thanks 👍

Great interview. Huge respect for Travis Stevens for what he has been through & accomplished 👍

WOW...he completely echoed my thoughts regarding Baseball. When I first moved to the states with my parents I was seven years of age. They decided, of all things, to put me in little league baseball. I remember the first time as a seven - year old that I was up at bat and looking at this kid that was about to throw that ball - which is like a ROCK - at me and yes, exactly, all I had was this stick to defend myself. And I remember the fear in me thinking, "Please G-d, don't let this rock hit me...I hate this..." and I swung as hard as I could...and the ball crashed into my fingers as they held the bat. I screamed in agony and dropped the bat. And from that day, I hated baseball with a passion. He is such a straightforward, humble, determined and intelligent guy. Loved this interview.

I have a joke ... “how many flow grappling guys does it take to interview Travis Stevens...

Terrific interview

hey flo grappling guys, stop interrupting him mid sentence and let him finish his thoughts

I Was fortunate enough to train at a Place Called Cranford Judo in Central Jersey back in 97/98,Our Head Instructor was YOSHISADA YONEZUKA(RIP). He was a LEGIT BAD ASS In Judo, He was a 2 Olympic team coach in the 80's and trained MIKE SWAIN When Mike won the GOLD MEDAL In the 1987 JUDO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS and He( MR YONEZUKA ) was also a 9TH Degree Blackbelt ( KUDAN ) In JUDO. He Passed Away 10/18/2014 and he was LOVED by everyone

Great interview guys, TRAVIS Is such a Down to Earth type of guy and he's very HUMBLE also. Im Definately a Fan of His Now

Bless Travis Stevens

I think this video would be better if you let him thoroughly answer a question before jumping in with a follow-up question.

High performance people aren’t concerned with what people think of their personality. Their minds are constantly fixed on improving and not on pleasing others. They’re not mean, just focused.

These are great interviewers

Very nice interview. Pity you guys hesitated to ask Trevis how he prices his fight with Halmurzaev in Rio. This would be very interesting to learn. But still thanks a lot for deep interview

Travis is a legend. When he says BJJ guys have terrible standup, he is 100% right!

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu looks just like Judo, because it is Basically Just Judo. When Mitsuyo Maeda, a.k.a. "Conde Koma", began teaching Carlos Gracie in Belem do Para, Brazil in 1917, he was teaching Jigoro Kano's Jiu-Jitsu direct from the Kodokan in Japan. The name "Judo" was not popularized until 1925. Mitsuyo Maeda was a Kodokan Judo instructor whose specialty was ground fighting (newaza). This type of ground-only fighting is often referred to as Kosen Judo, or High School Judo, because it was popularized in Japanese High Schools as a form of interscholastic wrestling. Kosen Judo rules allowed direct transition to newaza, enabling scenarios where one less skilled competitor could drag the other down to the ground (a tactic now known as "pulling-guard" in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu). There is absolutely no question that the Gracie family demonstrated great skill and marketing acumen by promoting "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu" or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the masses. Helio Gracie's loss to Kodokan Judoka Masahiko Kimura was advertised as a "moral victory". More importantly, the Gracies sponsored the original Ultimate Fighting Championships when the world was begging for a professional combat sport with more depth than Boxing and more realism than the WWF. However, there is now a generation of Jiu-Jitsu students who only know half the story. Worse yet, they are often paying enormous prices for the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu name only to learn a subset of Jigoro Kano's original Jiu-Jitsu techniques and teaching methods. The Judo world has not been without fault too. High ranking judoka often looked down on the new popular MMA world due to Judo's Olympic status. As a result, most Judo schools have been over-emphasizing the throwing techniques within Judo due to pressure from the International Olympic Comittee to increase ratings on TV for the brief moments when Olympic Judo would receive air time. Similarly, there is a generation of Jiu-Jitsu students, and now instructors, who incorrectly think Judo is nothing but a standing sport.

makes me want to train more jujitsu and judo. not fully clear on what he means when he differentiates them so much, but i inagine he means sports' rulesets. for self defense, they weave together beautifully.

great listening to this guy

Show de bola Oss

i have done judo, and there is definitely a level of playfulness involved in most of my training sessions. It's also very serious when the time is necessary. Just like BJJ..Other than that, this is one of the best interviews I've listened to from a fellow grappling athlete.

Travis is just great person and wrestler!!! Fantastic interview

Excellent athlete

Can we get some timestamps with topics

His Dan Gable answer was absolute gold to me; he is a true student with a mind of steel who wants to learn from the best.

Great interview but my word, this man is the most intense person on Earth. I don't think he cracked a smile the whole time.

rule 1 when rolling with judokas = pull guard straight away

Should’ve been a 3hr podcast

1:52:29 is one of the most serious answers ever

Knee injuries have long term effects... Hope he doesn't have arthritis in his knee.

This should be interesting

I met that him and his mother in a Grocery store. He was like 10 years old and TOTALLY submerged in JUDO!

i didnt know travis could laugh...

Travis shows the difference between the mentality of a world class competitor and a world champion. Champions set the absolute highest standards for themselves because their goal isn't to do well, it's to beat literally everyone.

Travis Stevens as a tennis player. That would of never crossed my mind lol

"Did I kill her dog?" LOL, sorry that's you're injury but that was funny to me... Kidding aside, you are a true professional Travis, incredible athlete and please keep doing what you're doing!

As a fan it would be awesome to see Travis Stevens verse Flavio Canto!!! @flograppling make it happen?

They were desperately trying to get him to ass kiss BJJ. 😂

What an intelligent warrior.

I remember him as young adult at senior nationals in Miami. I knew he was going to do something special. Promote Judo bro!

Ok, he had a great judo portfolio, but a BJJ black belt from a legit gym in 18 months? Holy f*ck...

What happened to the kid he hired to help him train?? around 25:00 mins into the vid

This guy is intense. I feel he can just look at someone and throw them.

That was tense

Respect to Travis and Flograppling for great content, but at 24:15, what did he say? I kept playing it back and forth but could not understand..

Love me some JUDO 🔥🔥

Nice, he mentioned me! I'm world famous!!

In my opinion, Judo players train too hard! Travis is a beast but a great ambassador for the sport!

1:44:17 this!!

Incorrect, touch falls/spot pins happen in Greco & freestyle often.

Kind of hilarious he is talking about BJJ sitting in a t-shirt "in jiu jitsu we trust" 😅

Basic judo submission classic Travis

"the United States of America, we have everything you need" 🇺🇸🙌💯🙏🙇😎👌

Look at his hands. Definitely a judoka!

Travis is a unique grappler for sure, but the man must have 0% humour.

ok question there are more Juitsu Fighters (Jacare, Maia) in mMA than Judo fighters (Karl Parisyn) so I don't quite get the comment about Judo being a harder mentality?

100% wron about bjj in the olympics. Did skateboarding ever have a real national governing body? Yet it’s in the olympics even though it’s still largely illegal

👏👍🙏

Is that Chester Bennington?

He said he can throw anybody in the works if he can get his back to there chest. He tried that with the Georgian at a tournament and he got bombed right after lol

Garry tonon

“Gordon is going to tear up the Gi.” Those bold statements end up making ya look like a dumbass at a higher rate than looking a sage. Really helps demonstrate his risk v. reward spiel.

Jiu Jitsu and jubo nice

yea Judo is okay I'm all about American Jiu Jiitsu now so.... Cobra Kai style

Tough dude, but he already knows he devoted his career to a sport that is a bit lost and not necessarily the grappling sport of the future. About his bjj: The fact that he got close with (much lighter) Miyao proves that his bjj is valid but it does not prove he could necessarily ever win IBJJF worlds or ADCC. The only way to prove that is to enter and he does not want to risk his image doing that. In his last bjj fight Yuri Simoes did a takedown against him and dominated him. His bjj looked very good but not good enough for winning at that level so I were him, I wouldn't be so cocky telling which bjj player is an athlete and who's not. Try winning them first. He is an exceptional athlete still and I respect him just not always his style in interviews. Intresting how he praises John Danaher more than Jimmy Pedro. He himself is an excellent coach.

Guys got tickets in himself

All the comments are bots.

Jujitsu produces the lowest quality body type of all the grappling arts. Really good jujitsu guys look like they don't even lift/exercise.

A little history from Brazil. There were many Japanese teaching ju jitsu in Brazil and all over the world at the time. Some raising the flag of ju jitsu some straight from kodokan dojo. The Gracies didn’t want to fall under kodokan umbrella and their structure. The Gracies had their own vision and needed the freedom to do whatever they wanted. Also they were using and training more as a martial art then a sport. Just like many other Japanese teaching in Brazil, they were teaching ju jitsu and marketing themselves as a ju jitsu, fighter and teachers at the time. Promoting themselves not kodokan dojo in Japan. Ju Jitsu became Kano ju jitsu that became kodokan judo. All the modern stuff like BJJ, sambo, Olympic judo, submission wrestling are all amazing branches from the same tree. When gracies took it to US they patented Gracie jiu jitsu. In Brazil it was always called Jiu-Jitsu only. With the competition scene of sport jiu jitsu growing in Brazil and the refinement of the techniques and growth of the sport many gyms and people were getting promoted and opening business. In the US the same thing people were migrating to teach the art after the boom from the UFC. So with the money opportunities in the US many people wanted to teach jiu jitsu but didn’t want to pay to use the Gracie name. So the need to created Brazilian jiu jitsu federation for marketing purposes, to create a federation and show that was the same art from the Gracies. Peace ✌🏻 and please go train both modern BJJ + modern judo = real ju jitsu Best of both worlds. Respect both sports because it is the same art. Respect all the pioneers that paved the way on both sides. Because of each person involved we today have all these greatness of grappling around. Osu !

Jason over Jimmy ? Hell No. Jimmy is awesome.

Can someone kindly tell me interesting things he said about the different disciplines and his opinion? Something interesting! And maybe edgy

What I got out of this is that Travis Stevens has little to no personality, and judo is unbelievably dangerous and I'm sticking with BJJ.

Good guy and great interview but he is way to serious. He needs to lighten up a little life is short.

WWHO THE FOOK IS THE GUY WIT NO BEARD AND LONG HAIR THAT TALKS LIKE THE GUY WIT THE BEARD AND LONG HAIR 🤭😬😵‍💫🥶😅

It's funny to me that he thinks mat wrestling is not as physical as judo. LoL.

'Why don't you charge 50 bucks a month and make 150 grand a year...' Hmm, because putting actual profit aside you'd need 3000 students registered.

This guy has the personality of a dry wall.....Have Ben Askren on he's way funnier.

Travis is a great guy but gotta work on that personality lol.

Ju-jitsu is boring to watch, it's not a spectator sport like Judo is

Folkstyle Wrestling is better than Judo.